We love Kathryn Williams. Her new video “When” goes straight into the heart.
She has a way of achieving breathtakingly beautiful simplicity with her music. It’s all really based around her voice, a guitar or two, and sometimes a cello.
“It’s a beautiful thing to make music. I wanna write small songs about the small things in life, because I think they’re the most beautiful things.”
My friend Per Kristiansen introduced me to Kathryn way back when. We actually went to a concert together, to see Kathryn play at Södra Teatern in Stockholm. It was a powerful experience. If you have the chance to see Kathryn play live – don’t miss it!
More videos here: Kathryn Williams at Youtube
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Published by Pär, August 23rd, 2007
Filed under Soapbox
First heard of Lady Sovereign in early 2005, and was thrilled by the fresh sound. So thrilled that I did a bootleg remix/mashup of the track “Ch Ching”. You can listen to it by entering the full experience, then going to the section “Wonderful Gifts For Your Ears”.
The Lady’s come a long way since, and recently toured with Gwen Stefani. Not entirely in agreement with her new musical direction, as she seems to have strayed from her street roots towards a wider pop approach. Guess it’s inevitable to some extent when big labels start pointing their sticky fingers. But I think she’ll come back around.
In any case, this is a great track – an old school groove:
More stuff at ladysovereign.com.
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Published by Pär, August 20th, 2007
Filed under Soapbox
Today’s public service announcement is insane. I, for one, welcome our new book overlords.
When I was a little boy, there was a program called “Anslagstavlan” (The bulletin board) on Swedish TV. It was a 5 minute segment where the government informed you of important things. Public service announcements have come a long way since.
This one made me laugh (and yet appreciate why it was done, and that it’s very well done):
Directed by Tyree Dillihay, music by Bomani “D’Mite” Armah, animation by Six Point Harness.
Found via MeFi & Jarko.
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Published by Pär, August 20th, 2007
Filed under Soapbox
Vinay Gupta has dreamed up and constructed the Hexayurt. It is a shelter designed for refugees and other people with a small housing budget. A Hexayurt only costs a few hundred dollars in materials, and can be built in just a few hours.
Adding to the excitement, the Hexayurt is entirely free. Open source housing. All the information you need to build one is at The Hexayurt wiki.
Start by watching a video about the Hexayurt. Then read up on the project at appropedia.org.
Found via treehugger.com (where Hexayurt won the Participate! competition)
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Published by Pär, August 16th, 2007
Filed under Soapbox
A highly relevant and just a tad distressing photo gallery from the BBC website shows how the world is changing, thanks to rapid global warming.
It makes you wonder about the human mind, and human behaviour.
People won’t take global warming seriously until they’ve experienced the effects personally. Until their house has been buried in a mudslip caused by excessive flooding, until the summer becomes so hot that it’s almost impossible to breathe, until raised sea levels cause entire cities to be wiped out.
I guess it’s embedded in human nature. We don’t fix things until they’re broken.
From the gallery:
More pests
Tree-eating wood beetles are likely to benefit from a warmer climate and reproduce in ever-increasing numbers.
These images show damage to White Spruce trees in Alaska caused by the pests.
Image: Gary Braasch ©
Related: Gary Braasch’s photos of global warming effects →
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Published by Pär, July 22nd, 2007
Filed under Soapbox